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Have we done this recently?
T'Pau.
Dragged along by work colleagues to a smallish venue in Manchester, full of pissed office workers and the odd fan.
Amazing gig, they had the whole place joining in, played for ages, chatted to everyone.
Nice people.
Shirley Bassey.
Took my mum who had seen her before and was a huge fan.
Brilliant, she can really belt 'em out.
For hours.
Very camp, very professional and great fun.
🙂
Robbie Williams.
As above.
Bod Dylan.
Few years ago at the Apollo in Manchester.
Heard he was grumpy and miserable live, so not expecting much.
But he came on smiling and did did a good couple of hours.
Man's a genius.
Oldham and Saddleworth Brass Band contest.
[url= http://www.whitfriday.brassbands.saddleworth.org/intro.html ]Linky[/url]
Great day out, best combined with alcohol.
Strangely, all the stages seem to be conveniently next to pubs.
Sort of like a mini TT but with brass, not bikes.
Neil Young.
Yes. Really.
A free gig when I was living in France, and he was superb. Played all sorts of funky stuff and cajun inspired grooviness. Was a great party atmosphere.
Cherry Ghost at Oran Mor when they were touring Beneath this Burning Shoreline. The main reason I went to see them is because they're named after a line from a Wilco song. They were much better than that flimsy justification deserved. 🙂
The Proclaimers! 😯 Surprising how many songs of theirs you would recognise. Great session.
First that came to mind was Garbage at the Electric Ballroom in Camden many years ago. I wasn't that fussed about going but it was one of the best gigs I've been too. Same goes for Starsailor at Oxford Brookes.
Jethro Tull, sometime early in the 1980's. Fantastic energy on stage.
Electric 6, two hit wonders (for me) but Dick Valentine was/is a great front man.
The Classic Rock Show in Leicester last night.
Session musicians doing classic rock covers - got ticket for FIL for Christmas.
Bloody brilliant and way better than I thought it might be - 'Freebird' was amazing...not quite as good when they did Queen and Quo mind 😳
Poppa Chubby
Saw Beyonce at T in the Park while waiting for the Foo Fighters to headline. She had fantastic energy, was very slick and professional and really got the crowd going. By comparison, the Foos were an anticlimax.
T'Pau.
Dragged along by work colleagues to a smallish venue in Manchester, full of pissed office workers and the odd fan.
Amazing gig, they had the whole place joining in, played for ages, chatted to everyone.
Nice people.
Yeah, Carol (and Ronnie when he's around) are always good with chatting to fans and signing stuff after gigs. Quite possibly the band I've seen the most (either that or Thunder).
i saw Pink at a festival in France, who was playing just before Rammstein. She was ace! She used zip lines and wires to "fly" above the crowd.
Earlier in the day, I saw the Gossip who were fun.
Recent: Nitin Sawhney, bit of a tour of World Music but surprisingly good. He's got three amazing female vocalists too. One of those gigs that I'd never have gone to only that a mate asked me for some company. Really enjoyed it.
Less Recent: Elton John...another "friends have just told us they can't make it this evening, fancy coming?" type affairs. Apart from the saccharin 80s stuff, it was a blast.
Years and years ago: Rolling Stones at The Dallas Speedway, around twenty years ago. Supported by Matchbox 20 😡 but also Dave Matthews Band and Smashing Pumpkins who were both awesome. As for the Stones, I do remember thinking at the time, "Hmmm, they sound great but really, they look a bit old to be doing this kind of thing. At least they were playing all the music themselves.
The Killers at T in the Park. I'm really not a Killers fan but it was incredible, amazing atmosphere too. We were miles from the stage but still bouncing around, hugging randoms... (t in the park sunset headline slots are often a bit special tbh) Helped that Brandon Flowers was so obviously [i]into[/i] it, from about 3 minutes you can see what I mean. I've seen them a few other times and they were always pretty dull and the band disengaged.
Exitlude/When You Were Young was one of my best gig moments ever tbh... This exact version is getting played at my funeral, when my brother moved to new zealand a bunch of us made a video of clips with it as the soundtrack and we all cried like little girls 😆
Seen them a couple of times since, not even a tenth as good- which is what I expected them to be like that time. Makes you wonder if this was the only time they were ever that good. 😆
LeeW - Member
Electric 6, two hit wonders (for me) but Dick Valentine was/is a great front man.
I've seen them a couple of times but I felt that while Dick Valentine is a decent frontman he's not the over the top bastard offspring of Mike Patton and Tom Jones that he really needs to be for some of their songs.
Not surprising as such but artists I've seen a few times who are consistently excellent:
1. Metallica
2. Cardiacs
3. Duke Special
a special mention for Emiliana Torrini at Shepherds Bush c 2007 - something really magical about that gig, Bowie at Glasto 2000 just with his sheer presence and ability to hold the attention of such a massive crowd, and My Bloody Valentine at their reformation gig at the Roundhouse c 2007 - a spectacular racket 🙂 And Iggy Pop - proper rock with attitude.
Johnny Marr was excellent at Glasto a couple of years ago - 2013? But only really when he played Smiths songs - I thought grown men were going to cry
I like it when it's a band you've seen before and not dug. Mogwai, Hundred Reasons and Biffy Clyro are all bands I'd seen a couple of times and not just not been into, but actively ripped the piss out of. Then suddenly, boom, amazing gig opens lid. (Hundred Reasons were the eternal support band and I really didn't get it, til one night just decided to go for a bounce at a Hell Is For Heroes show and suddenly, click. Years later they did the best show I've ever seen). Mogwai, I saw 3 times in a venue I was working in, in I think 96 or so, and absolutely hated, but it's amazing the difference 15 years can make- saw them again by mistake at t in the park and mind blown.
The Levellers at Dorking Halls and Tyla (Dogs d'amour) in the back room of a pub. Both so much better than they should have been and so much more fun than watching headline bands at proper venues.
The proclaimers in Orkney were pretty special...pulled a lovely little islander tht night as well....
Pick of the bunch was the Japanese Beatles back in my uni days. You are never going to have high expeectations of watching a japanese beatles cover band who pitched up at my Student Union, but they were ace. Then half way through the set they brought out the Japanese eric clapton for a few songs...great night
The Sweet in about 1971 - a gang of us went to a venue in Halifax for the soul night. Wrong night! To say that Sweet didn't appeal to a gang of Lancashire mods was a bit of an understatement. They were fantastic!
Went to see Ade Edmundson and the Bad Shepherds at the Shepherds Bush empire. They were quite good, but the support act was the record breaking unhinged genius that is John Otway. The highlight of the evening was the" interactive" cover of The Animals House of the rising sun. much like this...
80's Prog Rockers Magnum. Saw them last year twice, once in Buckley at the godforsaken Tivoli and Liverpool Arts Centre. Getting into their 60's now but still sound great and Bob's voice is still as strong.
Support band (Vega) were superb too.
Everything But The Girl - Sheffield Leadmill. '96(ish). Equipment failure (DAT I think), meant they had to play an acoustic set. Much, much better than I expected.
PJ Harvey, Leeds Uni 2004. Seen her before but was blown away by this gig ... 'Lick my legs and I'm on fire ... ' 8)
I guess the two most recent would be at the IoW Festival last year. I basically camped out at the front of the main stage for all three days, because I really wanted to see the headliners, only one of which I'd seen before, which was Fleetwood Mac, and this time it was the original Rumours line-up. The other two were Prodigy and Blur, and I had no preconceptions at all as to what they'd be like. Actually, I guess I had an idea Prodigy would be loud and fairly frantic, but bloody hell it was insane! It was pissing down with rain, and it was just total mayhem, so I gave in and struggled back to the sound-desk and safety; no place for a bloke in his sixties!
Blur, well, again, no idea what to expect, they'd been out of circulation for quite a while, so I was thinking they'd just go through the motions. Not so, they were blindingly good, did a fair bit of the new album, massive stage set-up, and a good selection of their hits, and they got Phil Daniels on to do Parklife! Damon worked his ass off, he gave it everything, and I came away chuffed to bits I'd seen them, an outstanding show.
Actually, thinking about it, there were several others that surprised me at how good they were live; James Bay, who I wouldn't go out of my way to see was really pretty good, and a much better guitarist than I'd expected, Ian Anderson's Jethro Tull, who I expected to be just doing it for the money were bloody good, mostly all previous members of Tull, but a young bloke whose name escapes me was doing vocals while Ian was playing the flute, and he was ripping the piss out of Anderson at the same time. Really enjoyed them, which I wasn't expecting at all, and the same with James, never a fan, but it's surprising how many songs you know, and they really gave it everything, enjoyed them much more than I had expected to. Tim Booth even ended up crowd surfing for some distance.
First festival I'd been to since 1995, and hugely enjoyable.
Saw Cindy Lauper at the Albert Hall many years ago and she was superb - we only went because we had some free tickets.
Saw the Smoke Fairies supporting Public Service Broadcasting recently - they were stunning live. I came home and downloaded their albums - absolute rubbish!
World Party - pre 'Goodbye Jumbo' small venue and great music
- on the ride home their tour bus over took me and the'sexy' backing singer waved enthusiastically at me.
Nice guitars too 🙂
Went to see Hozier the other week at the Manchester O2 Apollo. I wasn't really in the mood to enjoy it compounded by a run in with a knob driver on the M62 going there. A longish wait in the rain outside and I was ready to turn round and go back home but that would have upset the wife who was looking forward to it. Got inside and the support act, Wyvern Lingo, who'd I'd never heard of impressed me and my mood started to lift. Hozier came on and just blew me away. All the detail lost on listening to the album before just came to life.
He's playing there again next month and if I could tickets again I'd be watching it all over again.
+1 for Robbie Williams.
Didn't want to like him at all at live8 but had to admit he stole the show, great performer.
Also human league. Went to see them at benicassim by myself, while the entire rest of the festival tried to see Arctic monkeys.
They gave a rip roaring performance to a sparse crowd who were really into it, ending with a totally euphoric version of together in electric dreams that topped anything else at the festival.
Stumbled upon a DJ Alligator gig in svendborg, that turned out to be mega 😀
Del Amitri at the national in Kilburn. Fantastic band
Laughs out loud at monkeysfeet for mentioning the Tiv. Worlds stickiest carpets
Saw erasure down in Plymouth back in 96 or 97? Andy Bell in a yellow feather boa...class
Dido,
Way more interesting than it should have been!! She was really good, in fact I'd go as far as saying she was brilliant!!
Saw Mark Cohn way back. Wasn't sure what to expect but a guy on stage with occasional support from a bass player, wow he got everyone by the scruff off the neck and ended with the audience singing walking in Memphis back to him. Just a stunning night of one bloke giving everything to an audience.
Prince at O2. Better than expected, great atmosphere.
Baaba Maal in Leicester ( Tinariwen and a Zimbabwean band as support) Maal was effing amazing.
Everlast, early 2000's at some basement venue in London. I hate hip-hop (or whatever you call his 'typical' style), but really like a handful of his more 'normal' songs. Anyway, me and two mates got there for some reason fairly early and fairly sober, to find the bar only sold tins of Red Stripe for about four quid each. There was no readmission if we left, so we had to suck it up and shell out. Then the warm-up act came on, some young lad on a mixing desk, spinning some hippity-hoppity-dancey stuff and adding a bit of his own rapping. On paper, pretty much the worst thing I can think of to listen to, music-wise. Except it was bloody awesome. No idea who he was, but he could really work a crowd. And Everlast continued in the same vein, the whole crowd rapt for the entire gig. And he did Jump Around at the end which rolled into the encore, one of the finest tunes to ever witness live.
Not a great gig as such, put a great part of a gig - Robbie Williams at Milton Keynes Bowl. Got dragged along by the mrs. It was probably an ok gig if you're a fan, but I'm not, so it wasn't. Except at one point there was some banter about him being the best entertainer, there's a big explosion, and Ant & Dec appear on stage once the smoke has cleared. Then they had a bit of a dance/sing-off (We will rock the mic - psych!) which was very entertaining, mostly through their input. Then it was back to Fat Bob, who continued his former mediocrity.
Gogol Bordello at the RATM free gig in Finsbury Park (that me and the missus got to go to thanks to someone on here!). Still don't really like their music to listen to at home but they were amazing performers, such energy.
^I agree with that. Seen them in Vancouver a couple of times.
Xavier Rudd And The United Nations! Got free tickets but figured it would be bloody awful (another white Aussie with dreads....), but he and the band were awesome live.
Levellers in Sherwood forest, location made it all work
Regina Spektor in the unsigned tent at V years ago, by herself with a guitar, keyboard drumstick and chair. Was awesome
most recently DJ Krush - japanese DJ/producer probably not normally my style but he belted out a great set in a great after party gig a couple of weeks ago. One of the highlights had a strange elctro style piece that slowly evolved into Queen's We Will Rock You. Kept us all bouncing for nearly 2 hrs.
Took my 12 year old sister in law to see East 17 at Wembley arena , years ago.
They were ace!!!
imob - Member
Del Amitri at the national in Kilburn. Fantastic band
I saw them at the Leadmill in Sheffield in about 1999 - they were superb.
Duncan Chisholm at Reeth Memorial Hall. Awesome.
The Communards at Brixton back in the day.
They were so good we went twice in a week.
Kid Creole and the Coconuts at Friars in Aylesbury in 2009.
Instant energy that lasted for the best part of 3 hours, stunning.
Under pressure to go as the wife had come with me the previous month to Stiff Little Fingers.
And we got to see Paul Weller do a sell-out gig there to, midway through his Albert Hall run - last night of the old Friars.
Manu Chao in Bristol in 2007ish - ace, so much energy, I'm exhausted just remembering it 8)